Overwatch's Returning Battle Passes Give Us Marvel Rival's Best Feature

Overwatch Is Getting One Of Marvel Rivals' Best Features With Returning Battle Passes, And You Can Keep Them

Before Marvel Rivals launched, it managed to earn a lot of goodwill with its monetisation practices. Yes, I know that is hard to believe now that the home screen is riddled with mini battle passes, gatcha mechanics, and far too many currencies, but once upon a time, we were lured in by its promises - particularly how any battle pass we bought was ours to keep.

Now, Overwatch is catching up, and fans are thrilled. Blizzard is bringing back older Overwatch battle passes, and finally making them permanent if you've bought them. Better yet, this will work retroactively, so if you bought the battle pass during its original run, you won't have to buy it again for its return. Instead, you can focus on unlocking everything you missed, without a deadline.

Overwatch Is Overhauling Battle Passes

This was announced in the latest blog post, outlining what we can expect from Overwatch Season 4.

"Arriving at Season 4 midcycle, Unvaulted Passes will give you a second chance to catch up on rewards from select Battle Passes past," it reads. "Once you pick one up (or if you already owned the original eligible Battle Pass), it will stay permanently available, letting you progress alongside the current season whenever it fits your schedule."

Judging from the wording here, it unfortunately seems that new battle passes will still disappear for a while after the season has come to an end, which puts Marvel Rivals at an advantage. With that said, it doesn't seem that they will be returning with the same price hike that NetEase put on its older, returning battle passes, which I am sure players will be relieved to see. The only caveat is that not everything will be included from the original run. Of note, the following will not be on any returning battle passes: "original premium currency, Mythic Prisms, Prestige Titles, or Mythic Hero and Weapon Skins".

New battle passes are also getting an overhaul, so that you don't have to follow the set path to unlock what you want. We'll have to wait and see if that outdoes the Marvel Rivals system, which does follow a set path, but doesn't compel you to unlock everything as you go - allowing you to save your battle pass currency for the items you actually want. However, if Overwatch lets you jump straight to the tier where the skin you're after is locked, that would be a huge improvement.

Of course, this is sort of the least a game can do when it's keeping so much behind a paywall. Overwatch might be free to play, but the price of individual skins is always shocking when I return. Not that Marvel Rivals is much better; at least Overwatch doesn't make my brain hurt with all of the different mini battle passes it wants me to buy. In any case, the fans are happy, and that's rare to see with any live service that's been around for as long as Overwatch.